DDD Ireland – Back for More!

If you were in Galway last year for the first ever Developer Developer Developer Ireland (Techprechaun!), you’re already familiar with the idea of a community-driven, developer-focused, multi-track day of talks, training, presentations and great fun, all for free.

If you didn’t attend DDD Ireland 2008, don’t worry; it’s coming back for more this April in Belfast.

The thing I love about DDD is that it’s very attendee-focused. First of all, anyone can submit a talk. Anyone. Are you an expert in XNA? Are you using some cool Ruby gem no one else knows about? Concerned that people using PHP are making security mistakes? Did you build a cool robot with Robotics Studio for a school project? Talk about it!

Many conferences are filled with the same speakers, the same talks, the same content. This is *your* chance to make this the day you want. Because secondly, the community gets to vote on the talks submitted so that you get to attend the presentations you want and learn about the topics you voted on.

Did I mention it’s free? That’s pretty great too.

Last year, one of the really fun things we ended up doing was a group trip out to Craggy Island AKA Inis Oirr the following day, where we got to geek out and chat more about technology all while enjoying fantastic weather and some Father Ted scenery. So if there’s enough interest we might do the same thing this year and head up to the Giant’s Causeway / Bushmills. More on that once the agenda is finalized.

So here’s the need-to-know:

Deadline for submitting talks:2nd February (that’s soon!!)

Voting Opens:3rd February

DDD Belfast:Saturday, 4th of April

Speaker Training / Workshop:

One last thing I will mention. I have received a few e-mails from people related to both DDD Belfast as well as the OSS Barcamp asking for maybe a workshop or training session on speaking tips and pointers. Someone mentioned it would also be great to do a short talk in front of a nice audience to get honest feedback and build confidence. So I’m offering it. If you are interested in doing something like this before OSS Barcamp or before DDD Belfast, either e-mail me at martharo [at] microsoft.com or leave a comment here. I’ll contact the people interested and set up a free, low-key workshop for people who want to give talks for the first time or who just want a bit of practice.

I may also do a women-only focused event if there’s enough interest in conjunction with Girl Geek Dinners. Again, let me know if you’re interested.